ATLANTA (Jan. 6)-- Old Dominion rallied from a 20-point second-half deficit to earn a 72-66 victory over Georgia State in the Colonial Athletic Association opener for both teams Sunday at the GSU Sports Arena.

Georgia State's (8-4, 0-1 CAA) Cody Paulk recorded a double-double with 11 points and 15 rebounds, and the senior blocked three shots to become the Panthers' career lead with 168. Kendra Long added 15 points, while Kayla Nolan scored 13 points.

Galaisha Goodhope came off the bench to score 21 points, 19 in the second half including two key buckets in the final minute, to lead the Monarchs (10-3, 1-0 CAA). Ashley Betz-White added 14 points for ODU.

Host GSU carved out a 35-24 halftime lead by holding ODU to 28.6% shooting, forcing 13 turnovers and making six steals, while shooting 44.8 pcrcent from the floor themselves in the opening half.

In the second half, GSU came out with a 15-6 run in the first seven minutes to build a 50-30 lead with 13:16 left to play.

Old Dominion began its furious comeback with a pair of back-to-back 3-point shots from Tiffany Minor and Ashley Betz-White. GSU still maintained control and led by 53-42 with just 8:43 left in the game.

But, ODU continued to chip away with takeaways and poor GSU shooting. ODU eventually got the lead at 5:54 on an old-fashioned 3-point play of a basket and free throw by Galaisha Goodhope. GSU tied the game at 58 with 5:03 to go on a basket by Kayla Nolan.

ODU led by 61-60 with four minutes to play when GSU missed an open lay-up that would have given them the lead back. It was still a one-point game with 47.8 seconds when Kendra Long converted two free throws to pull GSU back to 67-66. But, the hot-shooting Goodhope hit a jumper with 23 seconds and then added some later closing seconds free throws to secure the win for the visiting Monarchs.

From that 50-30 lead at 13:16, ODU outscored GSU 42-16 in that span and 48-31 in the half. In that second half, GSU shot just 27.6 percent on 8-of-29, many of them lay-ups.

“We did a lot of good things for 30 minutes, then made lots of bad decisions in the final 10 minutes,” coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener said. “We missed lay-up after lay-up, missed free throws, made bad decisions and bad passes and helped them get back in the game. ODU is a good team as their 10-3 record indicates, but we didn’t finish what we started today.”

Georgia State goes on the road to play at Hofstra on Thursday and at Towson on Sunday.

GSU held a +8 rebound advantage (43-35), making it 11 of the 12 games this season the Panthers have grabbed more rebounds than their opponent.

Today's game was the 8th game this year in the 12 that GSU has had a double-digit lead at halftime. It was the 7th game this year that GSU has held a 20-point lead over their opponent.

GSU had held 7 of their previous 11 opponents under 50 points this season, making ODU's 48-point second half all the more surprising.

Georgia State has been ready to play from opening tips this season and has outscored its opponents 412-to-284 in first halves this year.

This is the first time the 8-4 Panthers have lost back-to-back games this year, losing leads against No. 19 RPI Toledo (12-1) and now to No. 103 RPI ODU (10-3).

INDIVIDUAL NOTEBOOK

Cody Paulk's three blocks today upped her career total to 168, eclipsing the 166 of Rhian Jones, who graduated in 1996. Paulk is No. 10 in CAA history and within 10 blocks of moving up a couple more places.

Paulk's 15 rebounds today were a personal high and her sixth double-figure rebounding game.

This was Paulk's fourth career double-double game.

Kendra Long moved into a tie for second place in school history with 131 3-point baskets made in her career, tying Monica Thomas. Long, a junior, will continue to chase Kelcery Roegiers-Jensen's mark of 154.

Paulk's five steals today also tie her personal-best game and up her career total to 98 thefts.